Washington (CNN) – Gov. Chris Christie offered some strong rhetoric to his colleagues from New Jersey Tuesday night, cautioning that if they don't further overhaul the state's pension system, they could set their state on a path toward financial ruin.

"It's time to dig in and make a few people unhappy so that the greater good can be achieved," Christie said at an event in Washington.FULL POST

(CNN) – A special New Jersey state legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal that has upended Gov. Chris Christie’s administration has issued its first subpoenas for oral testimony.

The panel said it had served Pat Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, agency board member William Schuber, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak and Christina Renna, who worked under Christie’s former deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, a key figure in the scandal.

(CNN) - Sen. Rand Paul penned an op-ed for the conservative outlet National Review Online, responding to critiques of the Kentucky Republican from the very same publication and other right-leaning commentators who disagree with his non-interventionist views.

Paul, who's considering a presidential bid, argued that conservatism has long had a "strain of libertarianism" on the topic of foreign policy. To back him up, he referenced NRO's own founder, conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.FULL POST

CNN's GUT CHECK | for April 22, 2014 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

SCOTUS UPHOLDS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN …The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan law banning the use of racial criteria in college admissions, a key decision in an unfolding legal and political battle nationally over affirmative action. The justices found 6-2 that a lower court did not have the authority to set aside the measure approved in a 2006 referendum supported by 58% of voters. Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Breyer were in the majority; Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented. – Bill Mears

JUSTICE KENNEDY: "This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may resolve it.”

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: "For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.”

(CNN) – Continuing his outreach to minority voters, Sen. Rand Paul told an audience in Chicago Tuesday that the debate over school choice is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue, but a fight between the "dead-enders" and "those who believe in innovation."

"We've been trying the same thing with education for 50-100 years, and education particularly in our big cities has been a downward spiral," the Kentucky Republican said. "So just throwing money at the problem hasn't fixed the problem."FULL POST

(CNN) - A Republican state senator in Mississippi, who has mounted a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, touts his conservative credentials in first campaign television commercial.

The ad from Chris McDaniel comes six weeks before he faces off against the six-term incumbent in Mississippi's GOP primary. Cochran's campaign has already gone up with five spots over the past two months.

(CNN) - Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, experienced an aortic aneurysm and underwent surgery Tuesday morning, according to a source familiar with the senator's condition.

The senator started feeling sick Monday night, and he and his wife canceled their plans, the source said. As his symptoms worsened, he went to the hospital, where the surgery appeared to be a success.FULL POST